alstry (35.31)

1.01.10.......Show Me The $$$$$

9

America is simply not generating enough tax revenues to sustain THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.

At the Federal level alone, we are running a $2 Trillion dollar deficit and tax receipts are continuing to decline......rapidly.

At the city, county, and state level.......similar issues face practically every municipality in the nation.

As servicing the increasing debt level consumes a greater and greater percentage of tax receipts, pretty soon there will not be much left for anything else.

Nearly every bus, subway and commuter rail rider in New York stands to be affected by a punishing slate of service cuts that was approved on Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is struggling to fill a sudden financial shortfall of more than $400 million.

California, the most populous U.S. state and the largest municipal bond issuer, collected $439 million less revenue in November than what was estimated in July, Schwarzenegger’s Department of finance said yesterday in a report. The decline leaves revenue $1 billion behind projections halfway through the fiscal year.

IF WE DON'T RESTRUCTURE SOON......THERE WILL NOT BE MUCH LEFT TO RESTRUCTURE.

What happens to a nation when the demands of its government exceed its citizens ability to pay?????

As DWOT noted, in Pittsburgh we are taxing students' tuition to supplement pension shortfalls and in Minneapolis property taxes are increasing 5% simply to partially compensate for a shortfall at its major municipal hospital.

At some point......there will simply not be enough money to tax to meet demands to maintain the world as we know it......unless we restructure.

WHEN YOU RUN A BANKING SYSTEM TO PROFIT FROM SWAPS AND NOT FROM SOUND LENDING.....PRETTY SOON THE ECONOMY IMPLODES.....AND ALL WITHIN IT......NO WONDER BUFFETT CALLED SWAPS FINANCIAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The International Brotherhood of Teamsters blamed Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of underwriting derivatives trades that would benefit from the bankruptcy of YRC Worldwide Inc., the biggest U.S. trucker by sales.

“The relatively small benefit Goldman would derive for itself in fees or for clients from such a position is unconscionable given the fact that the 50,000 livelihoods could be ruined by a bankruptcy filing,” Teamsters President James Hoffa wrote in a letter dated today to Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein.

I told my significant other that if she wants to understand what's happening in America, she needs to look at Copenhagen. There are those that manipulate the system and stand to make billions, and then there are those useful ideologues that justify enormous transfers of wealth.

Unfortunately there are very few real grown-ups around that bring any sanity to the reality.